


Origin

by MakaylaJade



Series: For The Gods: The Bria Monique Series [7]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Crossdressing, Drag Queen Spencer Reid, Drag Queens, Freeform, Gay Spencer Reid, Gen, M/M, Origin Story, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27483799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakaylaJade/pseuds/MakaylaJade
Summary: Bria Monique was an entity created from lonely nights, complex textbooks, and an abnormal fascination for makeup. She creeped out of the mind of a boy suffering from an identity crisis at the young age of sixteen, but said boy was in a division all his own anyway.
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Series: For The Gods: The Bria Monique Series [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969837
Comments: 4
Kudos: 67





	Origin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [livvy1843](https://archiveofourown.org/users/livvy1843/gifts).



> Hi all! Sorry for the lack of updates in this series -- as I stated in Muted Blue, both my mother and I have tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately we are doing much better now, so I decided to celebrate my own recovery with Bria Monique's origin story! Since livvy1843 suggested it, this work has been gifted to them.
> 
> Enjoy!

Bria Monique was an entity created from lonely nights, complex textbooks, and an abnormal fascination for makeup. She creeped out of the mind of a boy suffering from an identity crisis at the young age of sixteen, but said boy was in a division all his own anyway. Still recognized as a child yet more intelligent than most adults, he was living on the cusp of childhood and adulthood, and he didn’t know who he was. He had stumbled upon drag by mistake, really. The LGBT alliance at Caltech had been messing around in one of the theaters, and while sitting somewhere in the empty rows, waiting on a lecture that wasn’t due for another few hours, Spencer was entranced by the performance, even if it wasn’t meant for his eyes to see.

“Work it, honey!” A voice called, filled with positivity and encouragement, as an individual in a rather extravagant getup strutted across the stage and posed for the nonexistent audience, a smile spread across their painted lips. Young Spencer didn’t know what to think, because his mind quickly supplied that the individual was in fact a man but with every aspect of femininity taking over his existence. He was gorgeous, whatever he chose to identity as, and Spencer briefly wondered if he could look like that too. The individual was powerful in their own way, and the sheer confidence they expressed in the simplest of movements was enough to make Spencer somewhat fascinated. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, but it had his attention, and he settled in then and there - he wanted to try. Spencer ducked down slightly to avoid being seen as the individual crossed the front of the stage, and fortunately he wasn’t, but as soon as he got home that evening from riding the bus, he walked to the nearest drugstore, compelled by his own curiosity to test out what he had saw; an experiment of sorts.

He picked out a small tube of peach lipgloss, a pink and green mascara, and a shimmery pink powder - he didn’t know what it was for, but it was eye-catching, so he wanted to try it and see if he could be that confident in himself too. When he made it home, Spencer discovered that Mom was having one of her episodes. He got her to bed with a bit of stubbornness on her part, and once he was sure she was asleep for the night, he found himself in the bathroom, staring at his reflection in the mirror above the sink and just pursing his lips slightly, quick to point out many of his own flaws. His nose was too small, his cheeks were too gaunt, his forehead was too big, his lips were too feminine, his brows were too bushy… Everything was just _wrong_ and he found himself avoiding his appearance quite often.

He glanced down to the three articles of makeup on the marble counter, swallowing nervously and reaching for the mascara first. Luckily, he had seen Mom apply it before, so he knew vaguely how to put it on without gouging an eye out. He pulled the wand out of the tube with a little _pop_ and stared at the black cosmetic with a tension in his jaw before setting it down again and sighing heavily, his head falling.

Was he really about to do this? Was he really _this low_?

Yes, yes he was.

Spencer looked up again with a newfound sense of determination, and slowly and carefully, he swiped the mascara on his top and bottom lashes, realizing that they were a lot longer than he originally thought. He batted them several times, and he realized he already looked a bit different from his usual state. He then picked up the powder, overlooking it critically before swiping his index finger over it and patting it across his cheekbones. He turned his head from side to side, seeing how the light reflected over the applied powder. It was somewhat subtle, but definitely noticeable, and it seemed to accentuate the structure of his face. He did the math in his head of symmetry, and since most symmetry enjoyed a center point, he dabbed a bit of the powder on the tip of his nose too.

But he wasn’t done just yet. He was really liking the makeup so far, as sparse as it was, but the lipgloss was what did him in. He swiped the fruity-tasting gloss over his cupid’s bow and across his full bottom lip, and the person he saw in the mirror was no longer Spencer Reid. He didn’t know he could look like this, and when he saw his reflection smiling back at him, he actually felt _pretty_. He cupped his cheek in one hand, overlooking every fine detail and realizing that makeup could do _so much_ for him. His fascination spiraled from there.

When he was eighteen, he entered into his first drag show. He was fresh meat, but he had two years of experimentation under the belt that definitely helped him when it came to makeup and wardrobe choice. But he didn’t have a name like most queens - that was the most difficult part for him.

One day walking across campus, to and from class, he saw a poster taped to the wall that said _Be Unique_ and he knew then and there, that it had to be close to that. Bria Monique was the result, and although it wasn’t exact, it was close, and it held meaning to Spencer. That was all that mattered, after all. Some drag names were funny, clever, and others were normal. Spencer didn’t need his name to be something extravagant. It was important to him and the very birth of his drag persona - that was crucial.

His first show hadn’t been easy by any means. He had never performed before, and he was new, but fortunately the other queens held his hand through it and gave him a whole new support system that he hadn’t known existed before. So, when he came off of the stage with tears in his eyes, believing he had made a fool of himself, they were there to tell him that he did good, and that this was just a stepping stone for him and his development as not only a drag queen, but a person. He was empowered, more than he had ever been, and it quickly became an important piece of his life.

It was never something he broadcasted, but he didn’t necessarily keep it a secret. Drag queens didn’t often come up in conversations between FBI agents, so he never really had to disclose it to anyone. It wasn’t relevant in his work life, and he never thought it would be until he had gone and practically revealed himself to others. The first mistake of forgotten nail polish all the way to fixing Penelope’s makeup — they were both slip-ups, but they happened and it was too late to take it back now. Besides, his team supported him regardless, and even though they most likely saw him in a new light, he was not judged or treated any differently. The brilliant Dr. Spencer Reid, who happened to enjoy the extravagant hobby of drag, was not viewed any differently than he was before. His input was still just as valuable and his work was still credited to him and him alone.

He was the same person, just with an alternate persona he used for performing, and his team’s acceptance was probably the greatest form of support he could ever hope for. He had struggled through many hardships in his life, and he was just happy to know that the revelation of himself to his peers was not one of them.

Derek’s support alone was enough. He had told that man just about everything there was to know about him, from the emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his father and schoolmates to taking care of his mother from the age of ten to eighteen. Their relationship didn’t sway because of Spencer’s origin; the hardest part of all was accepting that he found someone who loved him for him, and he didn’t think he would ever get over that.


End file.
